mind you the prince has a lot of sail area, and no replacement for displacement! or i this case area of sail, so its hardly surprising

Yes...she was over canvassed and gave the Brits one heck of run till she got caught up in a storm and lost her sails. The pursuing frigates had an easy time of it then. The Brits swore she could sail straight into the wind.

A little of her history:

"On the night of December 21st the Prince de Neufchatel, in spite of the vigilance of the British blockading force off Boston, got to sea. On the fifth day out she encountered a terrific storm which lasted several days, and came near ending the career of this formidable craft. " The morning of December 28th," records one of the American crew, 'I broke with no prospect of the gale ceasing, and the brig looked more like a wreck than the stanch and proud craft of the week previous. She was stripped to her stumps, all her yards, except her fore and fore-topsail, were on deck, her rigging in disorder, and the decks lumbered and in confusion from the effects of the sea which had so often broken over them during the past night.

Much of this confusion was attributable to the third officer, who had the watch from 4 A. M. to 8A. M. When he was relieved by the first officer, at 8 A. M., the latter severely reprimanded the third officer, and, among other things, asked if a sharp lookout had been maintained, and replied that the last man sent to the masthead had left his post without being relieved, and without the third officer knowing that the brig had, been without a lookout all that time. . . . I saw the fire-or what was its equal, anger-flash from the first lieutenant's eves at this remissness of duty , and he instantly gave an order for the best man on board to go to the masthead, there to remain till ordered down."

This man had not been at his post ten minutes when he reported a large sail bearing down on the Prince de Neufchatel, and shortly afterward two others, apparently heavy men-of-war, making every effort to close on the privateer. These strangers were, in fact, the British frigates Leander, Newcastle, and Acasta, composing Sir George Collier's squadron, which had been off Boston, but was now hastening across the Atlantic in search of the Constitution had eluded them off Boston and was now at sea.

As soon as the strangers were discovered the Prince de Neufchatel was put on her best point of sailing, but in spite of every effort-the massive frigates having a great advantage over her in the heavy seas and wind-she was soon surrounded and captured. Only a few minutes after the surrender one of the frigates lost her jib boom, fore and main topgallant roasts and broke her mizzen topsail yard in the slings, while another frigate carried away her mizzen topsail, main topgallant yard, and strained her fore-topsail yard so as to endanger it by carrying sail. Had the approach of the enemy been discovered when they made out the privateer the Prince de Neufchatel would have escaped. "

Here is a history link to the page on my site about her. You need to read the story of her crew fighting off 5 boat loads of Royal Navy Marines in the pitch dark with a hand full of very brave sailors....the Captain was a real hero...a movie should be made.

It's my understanding that she was taken to England inspected and drawings made of her so to copy her. She was then damaged coming in/out of dry dock having her back broke and had to be scrapped. Not a very fitting end to a great ship.

Now that we have an appropriate forum, I wanted to change the name of this thread to match the other SC&H 1/24 scale threads, but the ability to edit it is gone....moderator can you please change the name to:

She a has a heavy metal, 20+ lb, ballast plate and wood spacer hanging under her via a couple of threaded rods that go all the way up through the deck. The hardest part about preping her is setting her on those rods at the same time. The ship isn't that heavy, but it is an ackward postition with all the weight extended and she will give your back a work out after a while.

Can the rods be put in from the top? Or, DanL suggested having them go through the ballast and have a lock-nut at the bottom, under the ballast - then you drop the rod in from the top (and just leave it there) and you can lean the cart back to put on or take off the nuts without reaching through rigging and other 'gotchas.' There's a little more to it than that, but I'm trying to be brief.

Once installed, the ballast rods stay in place. They lift maybe an inch as they are screwed/unscrewed into the lead keel. The ball-head alen wrench allows you to turn the rods from an angle.
Makes for very easy install/removal of keel.